Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1887-01-01

~ IrisA xAndIsrd sysssn.
In Ireland the landlord does sbsolutel,
n nothmg save to grab AL the money
ehns The peasant can scrape together.
m an Irish landlord. have always
cone, now do, and will continue 10 do
just - the other landlords, for, it is a
impoesible for NE as tho rest Of my class
10 do Otherwise; but that does not pre-
ysnt me from acknowledging the fact
that Y wornout system, at war with
tne Nineteenth century and something
that should be at once abolished. In
Ireland every chicken that goes into the
pot, every glass of cha,npagne drunk,
every silk robe that rustles on the street,
every rose worn at the ball, is 90 much
squeezed out Of the misery of peas
ants howell A few years ago this trib-
ute-for that is what it is was accepted
without murmui, just as feudslism or
slavery was accepted long ago in other
lands. But now the scales have fallen
from the eyes of the nation and the sore
is laid open in all its ugliness, just as il
the inner garment had been removed
from the national body, revealing the
flesh covered with seas and pustules.
This wound, which hitherto was only
visible 10 few, you new see everywhere
IN the most squalid districts Of the city
as well as il the elegant and fashionable
quarters.
SEQ that man yonder, ll-bred and
dressed in WORKOUT suit, smoking y
black pipe at the end of the weed-in-
vaded terrace of the villa that no has
rented Tor the season. He is engaged
In conversation with his daughter,
young girl whose face is the picture of
sadness, and who is now wearing her
best dress, that skirt of torn, red CASH
mer, buttoned at the back. She is tel.
ing him that he ought to give her new
costume to 60 to some tennis or garden
party In the neighborhood. He growls
and tells her that be thinks it would be
better for her not to accept any invita-
tons to tennis parties for the present
year.
"What," che answered, "do you want
me then, to die an old maid? You do
not give me the least chance to catch q
husband; I am not allowed to go to q i
single place Of amusement, and no young
man is ever invited to be here"
At last the father with groan draws
forth from his pocket roll of bank notes,
black, greasy end ragged edged rotes !
that have been torn and cut IN halves and
pasted together sgaiu; notes that smell
Of chimney smoke, Of novels, of the sweat
Of the fields and bitches; notes that have
been spat upon for good luck by their
owners ct fairs; notes that are epitomes
Of the hungry and suffering Of the peas
ants in the west of Ireland.
The girl goes skipping and hopping |
with three or four of the greasy notes to |
buy new dress and to dream Of the hus-
band she will never get, while the father
relapses into his dark reverie, gnashes his |
teeth at the land league and dreams of
the possibility Of extracting from his
tenants in the autumn what they refused
to pay in the spring; and I, as. I beheld
the picture the greasy notes, the young |
girl hunting for husband, the broken |
down land lord and the half-tumbling |
villa, framed by it's garden of weeds--I I
read in all that, as in the epitaph on
tombstone, tie history of type of civ
ilisation soon to vanish forever.